Lord, teach us to take our hearts and look them in the face,
however difficult it may be.Gaudy Night (1935)

Might as well admit it: once upon a time, disinclined to mix
business with pleasure, I found the very idea of the
Philosophical Novel off-putting. It was Alison Luries
Imaginary Friends, a deliciously comic exploration of
cognitive dissonance and of
the pitfalls of social-scientific
inquiry, that changed my mind and persuaded me of the merits of
mixing pleasure with business. I began to appreciate how a work
of fiction may explore philosophical questions and
by means of statements which,
being about fictional characters, are not trueconvey
philosophical truths; and I soon began to acquire a taste for
(not the epistolary but) the epistemological novel.

The Walter Duranty Prize for Journalistic MendacityOn May 5, 2014, The New Criterion and PJ Media presented the second Walter Duranty Prize for Journalistic Mendacity. The award is given to highlight egregious examples of dishonest reporting. Also awarded this year was the Rather, a new award for lifetime achievement in mendacious journalism.
The Duranty Prize is named after Walter Duranty, the New York Times Moscow corresponded in the 1920s and 1930s who whitewashed Joseph Stalin’s forced starvation of the Ukrainians (the Holodomor) and many other aspects of Soviet oppression. Duranty was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for his efforts. It has never been revoked.
Audio copyright Ed Driscoll, www.eddriscoll.com.

Introduction to The Kennedy PhenomenonRoger Kimball introduces The Kennedy Phenomenon, a conference presented by The New Criterion on Tuesday, November 19.

The Kennedy Phenomenon: "Watching the Kennedy Train-Wreck"Roger Kimball reads Peter Collier’s paper on oft-overlooked unsavory details of the Kennedys' lives. Much of the paper is drawn from Collier’s book, coauthored with David Horowitz, The Kennedys: An American Drama.